wefinda business news - weekly catch up 21st June 2010

In a speech at the Mansion house on 16 June, the Chancellor, George Osborne, sounded the beginning of the end for the Financial Services Authority.  Saying that the authority had become a “narrow regulator, almost entirely focused on rules based regulation”, the Chancellor announced that the FSA will cease to exist in its current form and that a new prudent regulator will be formed as a subsidiary of the Bank of England.  In addition a new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority will be formed to take over regulation of conduct of “every authorised financial firm providing services to consumers.”

This shake up in regulation will eventually affect all of us from those looking to borrow and invest via banks and other institutions to those of us with pensions, ISAs and other investments. 

Elsewhere in the city, on 17 June Ofcom announced that it had come to an agreement with BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to cut charges for early termination of contract.  This will affect landline and landline + broadband contracts.  This means that it will become cheaper to cancel services which are uncompetitive in terms of price or client satisfaction and give greater freedom of choice to consumers and businesses alike.

Many of us remember and were affected by the fire and explosion at the Buncefield Oil Storage depot in 1985.  The trial into the fire ended this week with the jury issuing guilty verdicts on charges including failing to protect workers and members of the public, and failing to prevent a major accident.  We can all learn lessons from this incident, including the need to have a proper business continuity plan which will cover all possibilities.  Further details regarding the trial can be found on the HSE website.

 So what do we have to look forward to?  Well, for a start on June 22nd we have George Osborne’s first budget.  At that point, all the rumours and leaks stop and we get a chance to find out just how painful the Government’s plans to sort out the economy will be.  One thing we do know is that the plans will affect every business in some way.

For a bit of light relief after the budget, on June 23rd we have the European Parliament’s public hearing into the future of European standardisation.  The hearing is to be broadcast live on the internet and you can tune in on http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/faces/live/live-video.jsp?language=en.  The agenda includes items such as standardisation of ICT and the roles of SMEs in the standardisation process.

And finally, with thanks to Reuters, one thing we do know is that whatever George Osborne comes up with next week, it won’t match the Japanese city of Isesaki.  Civil servants there were pleased when the city authorities suggested they stop wearing jackets and ties in a bid to cool staff down and save on air conditioning.  However, the workers feel that officials have now gone too far as they have banned the wearing of beards for the same reason.